In a post to Facebook's official blog, 26-year-old founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the changes, which include "one simple control to set who can see the content you post." The previous system featured an array of 50 privacy settings and 170 privacy options. That has been replaced by one page featuring 15 settings, accompanied by a new privacy guide.
The company has "reduced the amount of basic information that must be visible to everyone" and "made it simple to control whether applications and websites can access any of your information." The site began rolling out the changes to its 400 million users yesterday.
The US Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said the changes are good but that further changes are needed.
"All of the new settings are positive steps toward giving Facebook users more control over the privacy of their data, directly responding to several of EFF's criticisms and reversing some of the worst of Facebook's privacy missteps," it said in a statement. "However, we still have some fundamental concerns about the amount of user information being shared with third-party Facebook applications and web sites."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said "Facebook deserves a lot of credit for its latest changes" but expressed some concerns.
"Allowing users to opt out of instant personalization and third-party app sharing is a significant advance for privacy and Facebook deserves praise for taking these steps," said the ACLU. "Unfortunately, the privacy control that Facebook has given to users over the sharing of information with general Platform apps and pages is extremely crude," it said.
"Users are only given the choice between having much of their information visible to any application or site they or their friends use or not allowing the sharing of any information with any application or site at all," noted the ACLU.
"That means that users who want to use even a single handy app will have to choose between not using that app or opening up all their information to any third-party app used by themselves OR their friends. A better approach would be to allow users to disable sharing information with their friends’ apps, which would still allow users to interact with (and interact with friends via) any application they specifically chose," it said.
The ACLU also noted that Facebook had made it easier to opt out of 'instant personalization', a service that lets third party websites recognize visitors with Facebook profiles. But it criticized the need for users to opt out rather than opt in to the service.
"Facebook should rethink the whole idea of instant personalization as a default, and at minimum require users who want the 'feature' to actually opt in before their experience on partner sites is affected," said the ACLU.
"Overall, Facebook needs to recognize that users should be allowed to fully control third party sharing," it said. "Just as each user can determine whether any other user can see her information, she should be able to choose whether any third party can access that information – without being forced to make a blanket 'yes or no' choice that applies to every single application."
UK-based pressure group Privacy International expressed "disappointment and frustration" over the changes.
"Rather than being a bold step forward in the advancement of consumer rights, the latest changes merely correct some of the most unacceptable privacy settings on the site," it said in a statement. "Very little has changed in terms of the overall privacy challenge that Facebook and its users need to navigate."
"The defaults – which Facebook unhelpfully describes as 'recommended settings' – are still set to for maximum disclosure to everyone," said Privacy International. "That means the vast majority of users will continue to operate on the site fully exposed. The company has done little to change this situation."
